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off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

In Case You Missed it....

| By CBPP

This week on Off the Charts, we focused on the economy, deficits and debt, the federal budget and taxes, state budgets and taxes, housing, and health care.

  • On the economy, Chad Stone noted that the January jobs report shows that while the economy has continued to add jobs, it must grow faster to bring unemployment down more quickly.
  • On deficits and debt, Robert Greenstein responded to a Washington Post editorial’s characterization of a CBPP paper on stabilizing the debt.
  • On the federal budget and taxes, Chye-Ching Huang listed four reasons why switching to a territorial tax system would carry serious fiscal and economic risks and explained why even a less than “pure” territorial system wouldn’t completely avert those risks.  We pointed to our new analysis showing that the recently restored “Pease” limit on itemized deductions for high-income people won’t discourage charitable giving.
  • On state budgets and taxes, Nicholas Johnson showed that state and local tax systems disproportionately burden lower-income families.  Michael Mazerov explained why states should opt out of an increasingly costly corporate tax break, the “domestic production deduction.”
  • On housing, Douglas Rice pointed out that many low-income families risk losing rental assistance due to the across-the-board budget cuts (“sequestration”) scheduled to begin on March 1.
  • On health care, Judy Solomon highlighted the importance of health reform’s Medicaid expansion for working parents.

In other news, we issued Chad Stone’s statement on the January jobs report.  We released papers on the fiscal and economic risks of territorial taxation, the relationship between SNAP (food stamps) and work in low-income households, the estimated cuts in housing assistance and community development due to sequestration, and the misconception that the “Pease” provision will discourage charitable giving.  We also updated our report on why states should opt out of the domestic production deduction.

Finally, we updated our guide to SNAP eligibility and benefits, our backgrounder on the number of weeks of unemployment benefits available in each state, and our chart book on the legacy of the Great Recession.